{"id":22603,"date":"2023-01-12T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-12T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=22603"},"modified":"2023-01-25T15:25:30","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T14:25:30","slug":"fall-and-rise-of-the-elm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/2023\/01\/12\/fall-and-rise-of-the-elm\/","title":{"rendered":"Fall and rise of the elm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tall and elegant, the English elm once graced our countryside in its millions, until disease struck it down. But all is not lost. Conservationists now hope the elm will be reborn, thanks to the work of scientists and volunteers, discovers Rob <\/strong>McGowan <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Once one of the dominant trees in the British landscape, English elms can grow to a height of 30m and live for over 100 years, but most have succumbed to disease <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Chiffchaffs chirped, Pevensey Castle\u2019s blue and yellow flags fluttered in the spring sunshine, a breeze rustled the bare branches of a stand of tall trees \u2013 and all seemed well in this corner of Sussex. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Those tall trees are English elms, Ulmus <\/em>procera <\/em>\u2013 an iconic species that once stood sentinel across Britain\u2019s lowland landscape, their straight, slender trunks and billowing, thundercloud-like canopies immortalised by countless artists and poets. In folklore, elms often had a sinister, rather Gothic reputation, as they were associated with death, partly because of their habit of suddenly shedding branches. <\/p>\n\n

For centuries, elm wood was prized for its toughness and beautiful swirling grain, and fashioned into everything from flooring to furniture, cartwheels, tools and coffins. Because elm holds its shape and strength when waterlogged, it was often used in ships\u2019 keels, lock gates and water wheels. Elms were also renowned for the ecosystems they supported, including 80 species of invertebrate, notably the white-letter hairstreak butterfly and myriad moths. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cTheir billowing canopies have been immortalised by countless artists and poets\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

However, the elms that framed Salisbury Cathedral in John Constable\u2019s famous 1823 landscape are long gone, decimated by waves of Dutch elm disease (DED). By the late 1970s, around 25 million trees had perished and the species had largely slipped from the collective memory. But not entirely. Like Asterix\u2019s Gaulish village, the English elm clung on, unheralded, in a few areas. Parts of East Sussex remained a stronghold: a slice of coast and countryside between Brighton and Pevensey. The combination of sea breezes and the largely treeless South Downs may have created an area that the elm bark beetle, which spreads the disease, could not access in large numbers.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

THE PLAGUE RETURNS <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

Anthony Becvar is a tree health officer at East Sussex County Council (ESCC); a large part of his job has been to protect the elms, which are now globally significant. During the winter of 2011, Becvar and his colleagues set out in search of the remaining mature elms, walking for miles along footpaths and byways. They counted about 14,000 and plotted them on a map. Since then, however, the team has had its work cut out. Dutch elm disease has burst into the \u201ccontrol zone\u201d, entering from the north, Becvar thinks, and moving along the Ouse and Cuckmere valleys, facilitated perhaps by a succession of unusually warm springs. <\/p>\n\n

Becvar says the elms haven\u2019t been re-mapped and he\u2019s reluctant to Diseased elms reveal themselves in late spring, when new leaves appear brownish and curled. Initially, the ESCC team would fell diseased trees as soon as they were spotted so they didn\u2019t decline and become breeding grounds. But with greatly reduced budgets, ESCC has prioritised felling trees considered to be in an ideal condition for beetles to breed.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

  • \"\"
    English elms are key protagonists in John Constable\u2019s 1823 painting Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop\u2019s Grounds <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
  • \"\"
    Dark pink to red, the elm\u2019s pretty flowers hang in tassels estimate how many mature ones remain in the zone. It\u2019s clear, however, that many fine specimens have now succumbed and been felled. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n

    \u201cAs the disease is endemic,\u201d Becvar says, \u201cwe are never likely to eradicate it. However, my main task is to ensure a population of healthy elm continues within the control zone. By removing trees suitable for breeding beetles, we hope their population diminishes enough to allow regrowth to a point where there will always be a healthy mature population. I am optimistic that this is possible if enough time and money is spent seeking out diseased trees and removing them in a timely fashion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

    \u201cDiseased elms are daubed with ominous orange spots, then dismembered\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

    THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

    The rasp of a chainsaw, shouted commands, the grating of branches hauled along driveways, the grind and deathrattle of woodchips clattering into a trailer\u2019s housing. These have become familiar sights and sounds across Eastbourne in recent years, as tree surgeons battle with the fallout from two microscopic fungi: Ceratocystis<\/em> ulmi, <\/em>cause of Dutch elm disease, and <\/span>Hymenoscyphus <\/em>fraxineus, <\/em>the cause of ash dieback. Their wind-borne spores have decimated swathes of ash woodland at the edge of town and beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

    • \"\"
      In 1975, diseased elms in Richmond Park, London, are marked ready for felling <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
    • \"\"
      Trees afflicted by Dutch elm disease lose all their withered leaves <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
    • \"\"
      One of Brighton’s Preston Park twin elms, thought to be aged over 400, succumbed to DED in 2019 Photos: Bridgeman, Getty, Alamy, Naturepl.com<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n

      Victorian town planners favoured elms in seaside resorts such as Eastbourne, Seaford and Brighton, as they thrived on the chalky, alkaline soils and were known to be tolerant of salt-laden air. More than a century later, mature elms still line many of the broad streets. <\/p>\n\n

      The elms are probably living on borrowed time, though. In Eastbourne, diseased street elms are daubed with ominous orange spots, then dismembered \u2013 boughs and branches sliced off and de-barked. For a while, a towering trunk will remain at the roadside, before being sliced again, leaving a stump \u2013 scored vertically and \u2018girdled\u2019, with conducting tissues severed to prevent the fungus reaching the root system. Some suburban roads are now adorned with dozens of elm stumps, at times to the dismay of residents. Removing them is apparently more costly than felling the bulk of the infected tree. In places, locals have placed flower baskets atop the stumps, or invited sculptors to get imaginative.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

      \"\"
      Volunteers for Eastbourne-based charity Treebourne hard at work planting native trees, including disease-resistant elms, in the South Downs National Park, renewing a woodland that had been devastated by ash dieback<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

      In Brighton, which has long taken pride in its large and diverse collection of around 17,000 elms and a strictly enforced \u201ccordon sanitaire\u201d since the 1970s, the local authority is also dealing with a resurgence of DED. The death in 2019 of one of the famous \u2018Preston Twins\u2019 \u2013 elms that graced the city\u2019s Preston Park for more than 400 years \u2013 was widely mourned. <\/p>\n\n

      HOPE FOR A NEW GENERATION <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

      But all is not lost. When 50 elms had to be felled at Coldean Wood in 2021, Brighton and Hove Council swiftly replaced them with elms of new disease-resistant varieties. <\/p>\n\n

      The long-term future of elms will clearly rely on trees that are resistant to DED. Efforts have been underway to propagate disease-resistant hybrids for many years, with varying degrees of success. Most of the hybrid cultivars have Asiatic ancestors \u2013 such as the Himalayan elm \u2013 that are naturally resistant to DED. But environmental conditions in Asia are often very different to those in southern England.<\/p>\n\n

      \"\"
      Treebourne is planting slender saplings in small copses with random spacing, to give a more natural feel to the woodland <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

      \u201cMore than 11,000 saplings were planted on the South Downs this winter\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

      Andrew Brookes has taken on the painstaking task of testing which hybrids will prove to be resistant and thrive in English conditions by growing them at five sites near Portsmouth. A butterfly conservation specialist, he was especially keen to discover which of the cultivars would prove to be a viable habitat for the rare white-letter hairstreak butterfly. \u201cIt\u2019s a slow process,\u201d he says, \u201cwith occasional advances, but also tragedies and setbacks.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

      A Dutch\/French hybrid elm known as Lutece, now propagated in the UK, ticks many of the boxes: disease resistance, insect habitat, tolerance of waterlogging and drought, and resemblance to the native elm. Brookes is also enthused by the elm variety \u2018Ademuz\u2019, derived from a highly resistant natural European elm recently discovered in Spain. But he points out that it has become almost impossible to acquire because of new import regulations, linked to attempts to prevent the spread of the destructive bacterial disease Xylella <\/em>fastidiosa, <\/em>which affects various species, including olive trees. <\/p>\n\n

      FRESH START FOR THE ELM? <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

      A fine spring morning, with wide skies and a commanding view to the English Channel. A group of volunteers are wielding sharpened spades, slicing into the crumbly, chalky soil of a hillside above Eastbourne, and planting hundreds of trees. A local charity, Treebourne, is overseeing the mass planting of a range of saplings in urban and rural settings, including hundreds of the disease-resistant New Horizon elms, grown in the UK by Hillier Trees. Supplied by South Downs National Park, the elms are part of its ambitious Trees for the Downs campaign, now in its third year. More than 11,000 saplings were planted this winter, which will rise to a total of around 100,000 new trees in five years. <\/p>\n\n

      Freshly planted, these whip-thin saplings tremble in the breeze. Could they be the beginning of a resurgence of the elm, not only in this enclave, but well beyond? Experts are cautiously optimistic that, with luck, these elms may be the beginning of a comeback. <\/p>\n\n

      <\/p>\n\n

      <\/p>\n\n

      <\/div>
      \n

      The elm plague <\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
      \"\"
      A pockmarked elm in Yorkshire, rotted from the inside RIGHT<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

      First recognised in France after the First World War, Dutch elm disease reached England in 1927 and swiftly killed thousands of elm trees. The microscopic fungus blocks a tree\u2019s vascular system, causing leaves to wither, branches to wilt and usually death within a year. It is spread by tiny (3mm) elm bark beetles, Scolytus scolytus, <\/em>which burrow beneath the bark of newly deceased elms to lay eggs \u2013 and in so doing gather fungus spores. Emerging in spring, the young beetles fly to nearby healthy elms to feed, infecting them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The original epidemic mysteriously declined in the 1930s, but a second one took off in 1967, emerging from shipments of rock elm from Canada. This time, elm bark beetles carried a far more virulent strain of the fungus and within a decade around 90% of the distinctive English elm \u2013 some 25 million trees \u2013 had perished. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"\"
      Tiny elm bark beetles spread the deadly fungus to healthy trees <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n
      \n\n
      \"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

      Rob McGowan is a journalist and editor based in Eastbourne, who has a background in geography and environmental economics. <\/p>\n\n

      <\/p>\n\n

      <\/p>\n\n

      <\/div>\n\n

      <\/p>\n\n

      Photos: James Ratchford, Treebourne Project Eastbourne with East Sussex Council, Naturepl.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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